Why having a Chief Digital Officer holds the key to creating a smart city
Smart cities were a hot topic in 2018 and this year, many countries will be looking to make them a reality. Felix Todd speaks to Todd Asher, of non-profit consultancy Bloomberg Associates, about why the role of a municipal Chief Digital Officer holds the key
Automated traffic lights, street lamps that can gather data and sensors to help limit pollution – this is the vision of a smart city.
As technology grows more sophisticated, the idea of using it to enable a better standard of living for people in urban areas becomes more feasible, but many challenges remain in the way.
One of the most pressing is the logistical nightmare posed by digitally transforming a city, from co-ordinating both the public and private sector to planning and implementing entirely new layers of technological infrastructure.
Pro-bono consultancy Bloomberg Associates believes one of the ways in which government can overcome this hurdle is hiring a Chief Digital Officer – someone to oversee the digital transition.
The organisation has worked with cities including New York, Rio de Janeiro, Athens and London to create such positions in recent years.
Deputy principal for media and technology Todd Asher speaks to Compelo about how this role can prove pivotal, as well as the smart city concept on a global scale and what his organisation has done to further its progress.
We have found that creating a position of Chief Digital Officer allows a city a centre of gravity to address internally how it utilises these technologies and externally how it promotes these services to make itself a truly digital city.
The role varies from city to city. Some are advocates and agents of change, some fill roles of co-ordination to ensure that complicated digital infrastructure projects get accomplished but all of them act as centres of gravity for an increasingly large portfolio of digital programmes.
These include STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) education, digital communications, social media, broadband, public WiFi, autonomous vehicles, the sharing economy and much more.
The Chief Digital Officer is a point of contact for city government employees, who can number in the hundreds of thousands, and for the private sector and start up communities who often aren’t sure how to connect with city governments.
Supporting a true transition to digital goes beyond infrastructure to leadership. Most cities around the world have internet access and email but very few have aligned their training, processes and management around this new way of delivering service.
In order to support and grow the tech sector – and therefore jobs and economic development – in a city, you have to understand private sector needs and how they can benefit the city.
We worked with Mayor Kaminis and Chief Digital Officer Habidis to create the Athens Digital Council and invited regional CEOs from major international and domestic tech companies and universities to provide guidance, feedback and support to the city.
The council is currently comprised of companies with household names like Google, Microsoft, Accenture and many others.
The idea of the smart city is heavily debated and few cities are there yet. Singapore is ahead in many ways but western cities are trying to advance quickly.
Much of this activity revolves around installing sensors around the city on things like bins, buses and lamps but it also means looking at new forms of transportation, charging stations and solar-powered devices.
You see examples of these in every major city and many are managing these complex systems increasingly well.
